


Love Letters

by RosexKnight



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-24
Updated: 2017-02-24
Packaged: 2018-09-26 15:17:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9908405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RosexKnight/pseuds/RosexKnight
Summary: Anon prompted: “I want you to look at me the way you look at him.”Belle gets a valentine in the mail. Ruby and Ariel help her decipher who it is from.





	

Belle couldn’t remember the last time she’d gotten a valentine. Normally the exchange of them were reserved for elementary school children, the tradition all but forgotten once they moved on to middle school. And yet there was a card sitting there in her mailbox, tucked away into an unmarked red envelope.

The card itself was quite elegant, with a picture of a stained glass rose on the front. In gold pen the inside read “I want you to look at me the way you look at him. Yours, from afar.”

“You have a secret admirer?” Ruby asked as she poured Belle another cup of coffee.

Ariel was at her side, smiling at the card that Belle had brought in.

“It’s so romantic!” The red-head gushed. “Like something from a movie.”

“I don’t understand.” Belle said, frowning as she read over the words for the hundredth time. “I don’t look at anyone particularly special…”

“You get quite engrossed in your books.” Ruby said. “I’ve heard you swoon over a number of fictional men.”

Belle rolled her eyes, tucking the card’s envelope away into the book she currently had on hand. “That didn’t help.”

“Maybe From Afar thinks you like someone.” Ariel prompted, taking the card to read over herself. “You spend quite a lot of time with Jefferson.”

“I babysit Grace.”

“You and Will play pool.”

“Before the bar he works at opens, and all he talks about is Ana.”

“Gaston seems really friendly with you.”

“Gaston is…” Belle’s voice trailed off. Concurred and sometimes rude is what Gaston was, but he wasn’t a bad guy. Superficial, maybe. Incredibly not her type. “I don’t look at Gaston a special way.”

Ruby frowned. “Maybe Gaston thinks you look at one of the others a special way and he’s jealous.”

Belle shook her head. “Love notes aren’t Gaston’s style.”

“I wish it were Eric’s style.” Ariel sighed, giving Belle the card back. “It’s the most romantic thing I’ve seen in this town in years. AND on Valentine’s Day? It’s adorable.”

Belle frowned, reading over the message again. She wasn’t aware of the bell over the door ringing, but the uneven tapping of a cane as the diner’s noise went down to a hush was evidence enough who it was. Ariel shifted beside Belle, sitting ever so closer as Gold came to stand beside the brunette at the breakfast bar. Belle didn’t look up from her card.

“Good morning Miss Lucas.”

“Mr. Gold.” Ruby greeted stiffly. “The 14th already?”

“Rent day as always.”

“Hang on let me get your money.”

Ruby shot Ariel and Belle an apologetic look as she stepped into the back kitchen. Belle sighed, tucking the card away into her book with the envelope.

“Boy trouble, Miss French?” Gold asked, giving the brunette a grin. “Bit old for that aren’t you?”

“You are never too old for romance, Mr. Gold.” Belle quipped, answering with her own grin. “Or is Valentine’s Day lost on you?”

Gold wrinkled his nose. “It’s far too commercial. Nothing about it is romantic.”

“Well maybe not so some.” Belle said easily. “I suppose I’ll be seeing you this afternoon to collect rent and return your book?”

“I’d hate to have a librarian after me for a fee.”

“You could just take it out of rent.” Belle said simply.

Gold chuckled. “Not a chance, dearie.”

Ruby returned with a roll of bills, handing it to Gold. “It’s all there.”

“I trust that it is.” Gold said. “Good day Miss Lucas. Miss French.”

With a nod to all of them, Gold walked out of the diner, and as the bell signaled his departure the diner’s volume increased, the threat gone for now.

“Let me see that card again.” Ariel said.

“Why?” Belle asked, handing her the card.

Ariel inspected the front of the card, searching for something in the stained glass rose that Belle hadn’t seen. Once she was finished there she opened it, and immediately sat straighter.

“There.” She said triumphantly, laying the card down for the other two to inspect, as if the answer had magically appeared.

“What?” Belle asked.

“Oh my god.” Ruby’s eyes widened. “He’d given himself away all along.”

“Who?!” Belle insisted, grabbing the card to look over herself. Nothing about it had changed. “I don’t understand.”

Ruby laughed, but Ariel took mercy on her friend, pointing at the words. “Gold ink.”

Belle shook her head “No he hates Valentines…” Understanding dawned in her eyes. The card fell from her hands as her head snapped to the door. “He wouldn't…”

Her eyes snapped back to the card, mind racing. She did look at someone a special way. She’d just never known it before. Her moments with Gold were small and fleeting. Moments in the library as they debated old world literature. Time spent in his pawn shop as she tried to haggle down prices. Nothing compared to the time she spent with Will or her movie nights with Jefferson and Grace or even her would-be dates with Gaston in sheer matter of amount, but her time with Gold was always…more. Held more weight. It was no wonder he thought she preferred one of them over her. And then there was the way he signed it.

Yours.

She was a flurry of motion then, stuffing the card back into her book and her book back into her purse. She finished her coffee in a quick gulp as the other girls laughed. Belle only glared at them, masking her hesitation with annoyance.

“How should…?” She asked, moving for the door before turning back to them. “I look okay right? Not to…”

“Just go!” Ruby said with a smile.

The bell over the diner was ringing in an instant, and the last look they had was Belle as she passed the window, practically running down the street after Gold.


End file.
